Paula " Happy Norouz"

This beautiful work is a greeting card for New Year from Iran. It is the first image i clicked on in www.icograda website and I just LOVE IT...!

In Iran, New Year is called "Norouz". Symbols of Norouz include Red Fish, Candles, Grass and apples which are all featured in the piece.

I really love how the hands are in black and white and then vivd colours are 'spot coloured' over the top, on the detail making it really stand out, I am fascinated by this look and would like to experiment with it myself, at some stage.

I find the images contemporary, however - with the use of hands, the designer has tapped in to the age old tradition of using hands as a strong image of the Iranian culture- think henna tattoos.

The designer is an Iranian Art director + graphic artist named Omid Keshtar he lives in Tehran, Iran.

Love your work Omid !!!

shagmeister

Stefan Sagmeister

When somebody hands me information on a designer, it is strange how quickly I act upon contempt prior to investigation. Sagmeister on a first glance seemed to me to be on of these out of the box, cocaine induced, five minutes of fame, sofa superstars. It is interesting how I am so willing to pass this judgement; in a way what I am doing is living and thinking in a very small box. After some reluctance I began my research…

Taking the idea and throwing it as far from you as possible in order to see everything around it, this seems to be what Sagmeister does, his design work mimics the subject very little, yet the representation is always there it just takes a second to make the match.

I remember once reading that the trick with design is making people stop for a second and think, if you have done this then you have made a mark in there mind and they are less likely to forget the subject.

Sagmeister to me is an artist, when considering the above theory, His work not only tricks you, but while you stand stupefied, it taps you on the shoulder and slaps you in the face.




I have chosen a design concept the Sagmeister developed for an advertising design exhibition in Osaka, Japan.

As easily seen in the image Sagmeister treated himself to a floor full of food over a week, during this time he gained 25 pounds, the point is? You ask…

I think there is a different point made in the artwork for every beholder; I can’t really say what you would think… me??? I think it’s something to do with consumerism, materialism and over population. Don’t tell anyone though.

Well there is definitely an element of shock value with this guy, it has probably contributed, if not, insured his status as a well known graphic designer. I have developed a new way of thinking just from my short experience studying him.

Hai.

Alex Pardee- Juxtapoz

I know juxtapoz isnt a newly discovered magazine by all of us but felt I needed to put something on here about alex pardee.

I’m so interested in his stuff, mainly because of the fact I finally found an artists whos works closely relate to the subjects/style of my own, im not sure if it has a particular name or something but he’s pretty much the first iv seen around.

He mixes bold colours with a mixture of also bold and thin lines, and a mixture of disturbing and cute themes, its messy and neat at the same time.

I found an interview about a recent piece he did called ‘Geek love’


“My father was a librarian, so naturally i was surrounded by millions of books growing up. Bookshelves upon bookshelves of books that my father swears he had read each one of them, but as a child, there was no way i thought that was humanly possible because there would be no time for Nintendo if that were the case. Duh. Amongst the hojillions of DelRay and Penguin logos on the spines of hundreds of books, i ALWAYS noticed a bright flourescent orange book that simply said "GEEK LOVE" in what looked like a computer-style font. That title contained 2 words that i HATED when i was younger. Why would i even look at it? Horrible title for a child to want to read. So i never even took it out of the shelf. Years later, i DID. accidentally. But i did, nonetheless. And when i read the back, and it said it was about a family of carnies who are trying to breed their own brand of freaks and start a religion where people are encouraged to chop off their own limbs, it was like finding a drop of toilet water amongst the arabian desert after crawling so much my chest had scraped off in the sand. I couldnt believe i skipped over that book for so many years. Perhaps my childhood would have been completely changed if i stumbled upon that book when i was 10. Oh well. So I read the book Geek Love for the first time back in 2002, immediately after discovering it, on a 13 hour train ride to see my girlfriend. It's the only book i have ever read all the way through in one sitting, and so i felt it was worthy of honoring in this art show.”



In conclusion.
This dude is nuts, and i want that novel.

Interacting w/Sagmeister

From the little designs and discussions I’ve seen & read of Sagmeisters, to me there’s an obvious style to a few of his designs and in this a desire to interact, be it physically, visually, for himself or for the audience. Sagmeisters designs take on a different level of interaction where they makes you want to pick it up, feel it, look closer or at different angles, or just to imagine and have an idea of what that might have felt like or where he was coming from. Having this quality is what make the audience want to look and find out more, is it something they can relate to?
Sagmeisters not afraid to go outside the box and present something different albeit sometimes simple, but effective, he has confidence in his design concepts and uses this to sell his designs to the client.


Quotes of Sagmeisters I found interesting.
• I select the right clients to buy into my obsessions as does the audience.
• The desire of an emotional impact is often (& rightfully) perceived by the audience as pretentious.
• Designs that impact a community need to be extremely - labour intensive.

INTERESTING MAN……Do you think so?

Jess - Castle Magazine

What is Castle Magazine?
Castle Magazine is a pdf online mag with regularly issues.
It consists of the work of free Illustrators, Artists or other creative nerds.
Every issue comes for free and is full of weird and high quality arty stuff.
This magazine is a german magazine and there are 12 issues per year.

Why it interests me?
This magazine interests me because of its fresh colours and layouts and touches upon a little grunge style, which i like at this present time.
The illustrations on the magazines are funky and eye catching.
I love it when magazines stand out on a rack of other magazines, this magazine would stand out alot to me.


Url:
http://isarstadt.de/wp-content/uploads/2007/05/castle.jpg

Push the Envelope

Being socially aware and responsible in the world of the designer today is very important as design is a commercially based industry in which thousands of people will see your creations and be influenced by them. Due to this there is great importance to spread the word to designers to make a better world to live in by not sacrificing ones individuality to impress the world of mundane conformity. Sagmesiter is at the forefront of such thinking.
He embraces the notion that design can make a positive impact on the world and can change it for the better, and acknowledges that poor design can also leave the world worse off (bad printing on Florida ballot papers ended up with Bush in the seat of president which ultimately lead to the Iraq war). For example in his body of work ‘Trying to look good limits my life’ the concept holds a potent social comment on the masses obsession with body image which he constructs with unusual media. It is excellent to see a designer pushing the envelope of common design media, and it relates directly with his individual conceptualisation.
Sagmeisters work is also mostly of a hand made nature, which I feel brings the audience closer to his work and makes it easier to relate to.

Kim- Ever-changing Style.

A main theme I got from sagmeisters interview is that you need to keep your style fresh and inspiration well watered. He states that he doesn’t think a sense of stye is just hot air and meaningless. I think you need to keep drawing inspiration from various areas of life and know that your sense of style even though u think you have a good thing going will start to get old and boring. Style is an ever-changing thing. This image of sagmeisrters is one of my favourite. It represents exactly the theme of change. Even though the writer has written always on the flower. It still dies. Nature is a cycle of death and rebirth. I think it’s the same for style, we need to let go of old ideas and styles and grab onto new ones.